Posted on 05/21/2012 9:03:35 AM PDT by Mad Dawgg
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has refused to take up a Boston University student's constitutional challenge to a $675,000 penalty for illegally downloading 30 songs and sharing them on the Internet.
The high court on Monday refused to hear an appeal from Joel Tenenbaum, of Providence, R.I., who was successfully sued by the Recording Industry Association of America for illegally sharing music on peer-to-peer networks. In 2009, a jury ordered Tenenbaum to pay $675,000, or $22,500 for each song he illegally downloaded and shared.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
So in response I give you: Copyright Math® and the 8 Billion Dollar iPod
Albums are internally stolen and “leaked” to the internet before the album’s street date these days and I never hear of a half-million dollar fine against the corporate flunky or critic who undercut album sales before the album even reaches the market.
Why is that? Are some of the “leaks” coordinated by publicists to generate buzz?
Cruel and unusual punishment.
Seems like the old “bird in the hand” concept is what they use on the little people and ignore the harder work of going after the big guys.
Definitely! Even saw a CSI episode once guest staring "Kid Rock" with that very issue as the assumed motive for murder. "Kid Rock" admitted he leaked the song to the guy who was murdered on purpose for the publicity.
Leaking tracks/albums is just another "tool" Bands/Labels use to create "Buzz"!
I guess we put him in debtor’s prison until he’s paid his debt. I’m sure it’s not dischargeable by bankruptcy. This country has lost her way.
The fines are excessive, but I also find it hard to have sympathy for someone who was illegally distributing music. Fix the law to make the fines match the scope of the infractions.
The point of high fines is to discourage other would-be copyright infringers and to also ensure that copyright owners have a sufficient incentive to go after thieves. If anything, the penalties are on the low side, especially if an unregistered work is infringed.
Don't worry... Obama is on top of this! He made a deal with the RIAA/MPAA and the major ISPs! Starting in July the RIAA/MPAA can accuse ISP customers of illegal downloading and the ISPs will throttle/disconnect the customer (and here is the best part) no courts or lawyers will be involved.
See they have streamlined the Justice system and removed the courts from the equation. All you need now is an accusation by the RIAA/MPAA and Bam-O you get instant justice!
Of course anyone who has had their Wireless Router hacked gets the same treatment if the hacker downloaded illegal stuff while hacking said router but hey as long as the RIAA/MPAA gets their failing business model protected its OK if we just shred the Constitution to do so... Right...?
I’m all for copyright protection, but this is simply ridiculous.
This is exactly the sort of thing that turns otherwise law abiding citizens into people who believe that the RIAA and the record companies deserve exactly what they’re getting from the torrent sites & P2P.
Also, there are unintended consequences.
One group of people making real profits off this are VPN providers. Basically you pay $10 a month and connect to the VPN network through your normal connection. All anyone looking at your traffic on the ISP level can see after you’ve done that are the encrypted packets flitting back and forth between your PC and the VPN provider.
They can tell how much bandwidth you’re using, but not where the data is coming from or going to.
Alot of ‘em openly advertise that they don’t keep logs, thus making it impossible to tell who was using a particular IP at a certain time even if they wanted to.
Its quite amusing to me that the main effect of the RIAA “crackdown” has been to drive innovations in privacy technology.
You just have to love some of these music groups, especially the gangsta rapers.... “Kill yo mama. F the police. Steal from da man. Break da white man’s laws (except for copyright laws which are good and fair laws and you should always obey these laws). Burn yo hood to da ground. Off the pigs. Toke dat joint and post yo bail.”
And who is the Lobbyist for RIAA ?
Chris Dodd, disgraced Senator from Connecticut - skedaddled out of Congress in the dark of the night before some Republican brought charges against him for taking gifts from Countrywide.
Scott free when he should be wearing stripes.
They have a “Pirate Party” in Europe that is actually running and winning Parliamentary seats on a platform of “people like the RIAA have gone too far in trying to protect their copyrights”.
Coming soon to an election near you...
You might not be able to motivate twenty-somethings to vote on the basis preserving the Constitution, but for preserving free downloading they’ll be there.
Its a civil lawsuit not a criminal lawsuit. Thus, it is completely dischargeable in bankruptcy, which is where this kid should be heading this morning.
Cruel and unusual punishment? No way! Plain old stealing. When are people going to learn that you have to pay for things you want. We have been so far removed from ethics that even FREEPERS are questioning theft and thinking it is ok. Sad how far we have gone down the tubes. No wonder Romney was nominated.
No, not at all. These songs are the intellectual property of their composers and performers. He stole them big time and deserves the punishment he gets. It's grand larceny no matter how you slice it.
And Hillary “anne romney never worked a day in her life” Rosen was a big shot at RIAA too.
Well, good luck collecting, that’s all I can say.
I’ve seen musicians on Facebook posting their “license” fee royalty checks. Thousands of plays = $0.30.
The RIAA is seeking money for their own coffers.
How much was ABC News fined when the stole copyrighted footage of Cheap Trick’s stage collapse from an individual’s youtube profile?
The networks broadcast private youtube clips every day for comedy relief and “human interest” without seeking the right to swipe it or pay any fees. The man who had the Cheap Trick footage was adamant that he be contacted about the use of his footage.
Two sets of laws. One for ABCDisney and another for private folks.
Diseny also argues that Winnie The Pooh should now be public domain. They are tied of paying the estate for the use of the characters. They also continually challenged Peggy Lee’s claims for music royalties on Lady & The Tramp.
Big Media is a fraud. They can suck lemons. They don’t pay the talent and they steal content themselves.
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